Nuclear plant sold for scrap

THE Bataan nuclear power plant, which never produced a single watt of electricity but cost taxpayers $155,000 a day for more than 30 years, has been sold for scrap for $2.859 million.

A project of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, the plant in Morong, Bataan, was completed in 1984 at a cost of $2.3 billion on a debt of $1.06 billion.

The plant—which later was found to have been overpriced and unsafe—was mothballed after Marcos was overthrown in 1986, but the debt payments on it continued until April 2007.

The Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp., which sells off state-owned power plants, said the Bataan facility was sold through a negotiated sale to Rubenori Inc., a local scrap dealer.

The sale covers the structures, plant equipment, auxiliaries and accessories, but not the underlying land.

Rubenori trades in scrap metal for both the domestic and foreign markets. It acquires scrap materials, especially from non-operational power plants, sugar and paper mills, mining and other industrial machinery.

The company, led by Ruben Torres, a former labor secretary, is a partner of Japanese firm Sato & Co., which has almost 50 years of experience in recovering and recycling iron and non-ferrous metals.

Rubenori vice president for legal affairs Feliciano Clemencio said that because the asset had been decommissioned, the company would dismantle the facilities, retrieve some usable materials, and then recycle it to be sold to local and foreign buyers.

“The trading of metals is better than opening new mining sites. This is one alternative: recycling some of the metals and melting them,” Clemencio said.

The government said it would declare Rubenori the winning bidder after verifying the accuracy, authenticity, and completeness of all the submitted bid documents.

PSALM would then send a notice of award to Rubenori declaring the company the power plant’s new owner.

Clemencio said the first step for the company was to pay the necessary fees and get the needed regulatory approvals before it could start dismantling the plant.

“We’re not sure if we can start dismantling the plant this year. We have to be sure that it is safe to dismantle,” he said.

The government decided on a negotiated sale after the only other prospective buyer after three rounds of bidding did not meet the government’s asking price.

The Bataan power plant was first put on the auction block in April 2005, but the government has not found a buyer for it until now.–Alena Mae S. Flores, Manila Standard Today